Essential for Reopening Schools: Trust, Empower, and Support Teachers

In this COVID-19 era, one thing is for certain. There is zero possibility of a societal return to normalcy until schools are fully operational. School/District leaders are in daily planning sessions to determine, and manage, their individualized blueprint for reopening. There is so much to consider and they are under extreme scrutiny. One of the most troubling realities that educational leaders are having to contend with, and plan for, is the brutal reality of student learning loss over the last 6-7 months.

Districts were abruptly forced into the transition from face-to-face instruction to virtual learning. The ever-present digital divide has meant scores of students lack the personal device and/or the internet connection to take full advantage of virtual learning. Some students depend on the full breadth of curricular and extracurricular activities, as well as social-emotional support, to fuel their learning. Many students are without substantive parental assistance during virtual learning as parents/guardians are working from home, putting in long hours as essential employees, or due to unemployment, simply trying to figure things out. 

It is even more problematic. Many states suspended or softened portions of accountability mandates (standardized testing, mandatory retention, graduation requirements, teacher evaluation, school grading, etc.) for the 2019-2020 school year. However, should a COVID-19 cure and/or vaccine become available by the end of 2020, it would be prudent to anticipate a swift return to the aforementioned accountability structures in the spring of 2021, all of which will be stressed by this wide-spread loss of learning. Educational leaders are appropriately focused on drafting the most effective and efficient student learning plan for the 2020-2021 school year. This plan should include a renewed focus on teacher empowerment.

Critically speaking, when the stakes are high and the challenges are plentiful, educational leaders have often responded by creating policies that are overly prescriptive for teachers. This approach diminishes instructional autonomy and lowers teacher efficacy. Like no other time in the history of schooling, it will be paramount that we collaboratively work with teachers and actually authorize them to make crucial decisions on behalf of children. 

In order to effectively manage the conditions they will face in the fall, teachers and principals will need specialized training, side-by-side coaching, and a system-wide infrastructure of support. While this undertaking will be challenging in many ways, I offer ready-to-implement suggestions based on research-proven school improvement strategies. If you are the leader of a district or a school, focus your attention on establishing a System of C.A.R.E. for your teachers. C.A.R.E. stands for Curriculum, Assessment, Remediation, and Enrichment, the core elements of a school-based operating model that ensures teachers are trusted, empowered, and supported.

To create a System of C.A.R.E., organize teachers into Learning Communities and empower those teachers to institute their individualized Instructional Cycles. Provide the space for them to discuss, and respond to, the following essential C.A.R.E. questions. What exactly do we want our students to learn and be able to do (Curriculum)? How will we know if students have mastered the concepts (Assessment)? What will we do for students who do not demonstrate mastery (Remediation)? How do we accelerate the learning for children who meet and/or exceed learning goals (Enrichment)? 

Here is a deeper look into each component of the plan.

• Learning Communities. Assemble a small group of teachers who teach the same subject matter and/or grade. Select a lead teacher for each community. A department head, a team leader, an instructional coach, or simply a teacher-leader who is trusted, professionally and personally, by their peers. Allow these teachers regular and frequent opportunities to collaborate. Their first order of business will be to establish Instructional Cycles designed to meet the needs of their students.

• Instructional Cycles. Create smaller periods of time-bounded instruction within the ten-month school year. Options are daily, weekly, biweekly, monthly, bimonthly, or quarterly. My preferences are monthly or bimonthly. Teachers pose, and answer, the C.A.R.E. questions collectively prior to the beginning of each cycle.

• Curriculum. What exactly do we want our students to learn and be able to do, during the upcoming cycle? Teachers can consult state/district curriculum standards, prioritize them, and determine the appropriate scope and sequence for their students. They can also share instructional strategies with each other.

• Assessment. How will we know if students have mastered the concepts? Teachers agree on the formative assessment(s) they will use to determine mastery. The results of such assessments should be available immediately and they need not occupy a significant amount of instructional time.  

• Remediation. What will we do for students who do not demonstrate mastery? Here, teachers determine how they will provide additional time and support for these students.  Criteria for including counselors, social workers, child psychologists is established. The root cause of learning challenges is often non-academic in nature.

• Enrichment. How do we accelerate the learning for children who meet and/or exceed learning goals? The team decides how they will provide individualized opportunities for higher achieving students to move at a faster pace. An often underutilized learning strategy for advanced learners is creating the space for them to tutor their peers who are struggling. Those of us who are teachers know that the best way to learn, really learn, is to teach someone else.

At the end of each Instructional Cycle, these teacher-led teams assemble for comparing notes on how students are performing, share strategies that are working, and address the C.A.R.E. questions for the next cycle. As a result of all of this, teachers would have taken part in the absolute best form of professional development that exists… The opportunity to spend dedicated time with role-alike peers, guided by a veteran of the group, and working out the solutions, their solutions, to problems of practice. Teacher efficacy, against the COVID-19 learning challenges, will improve and our babies will benefit. 

A word of caution. The process I have described, and used regularly throughout my two decades of school/district leadership, will prove menacing to principals or superintendents who prefer a “command and control” leadership style. Leaders will need to provide maximum autonomy to teachers. Seventh-grade Language Arts will be on weekly instructional cycles, while eighth-grade Science will be on monthly cycles. Based on the needs of students, state/district curriculum guides will be inconsistently applied. Even students in the same grade and subject will be working on different material aligned with their individual need for remediation or enrichment. Control must be surrendered so teachers can have the flexibility required to meet the needs of our students in the face of all that promises to be uncertain.

About the Author. Desmond K. Blackburn, Ph.D, is Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of New Teacher Center (NTC). NTC is a national non-profit organization that works with school and district leaders to develop a culture of high quality instruction that improves teacher practice, increases teacher retention, and disrupts the predictability of inequitable educational outcomes for systemically underserved students. Prior to joining NTC in 2018, he spent more than two decades as a math teacher, assistant principal, principal, director of school improvement, area superintendent, chief of school performance & accountability, and superintendent. To find out how he and the team at NTC can support you, including a free consultation, he can be reached at [email protected].